Berkshire Nature Recovery - Local Habitat Map Landing Page

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Welcome to the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Local Habitat Map landing page.

Please read the information below and watch the short video before accessing the map.

-Information about Marxan

-link back to public consultation

(Embed video here)


General, unmapped measures for Berkshire

Not all areas have been selected by our Opportunity Map, in fact ~36% of the county has been chosen, to ensure we direct nature recovery to the most important locations. Also, not all measures chosen for the Berks LNRS have been mapped. A list of the unmapped measures are below. If you manage or work in land that has not been selected for the Opportunity layer, and still want to undertake nature recovery activities, please see the list below.

Measures for everywhere/generic measures

Monitor habitat health using an appropriate toolkit (e.g. Biodiversity Net Gain, People’s Trust for Endangered Species etc) and address issues identified.

Encourage landowners to manage habitat for nature in accordance with best practice.

Establish refuge areas for wildlife (both as wintering and breeding areas) where access and recreational use is controlled.

Educate users of this habitat about its nature and how to use the habitat in a nature-friendly way. Promote greenspaces to be used as education facilities for local communities, e.g. through citizen science and community hubs.

Establish buffer zones greater than national guidance (e.g. >15m around ancient woodland sites). Prevent nature degradation occurring in buffer zones.

Manage invasive flora and fauna, for example controlling mink to restore water vole populations, following latest best practice.


General Agricultural areas and wider countryside

Priority

Measure

Code

Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Take appropriate conservation measures on field margins (e.g. sow appropriate native wildflowers, create beetle banks, leave margins uncultivated, stop spraying herbicides, pesticides, and fertiliser near field margins).

PM50

Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Reduce or avoid the use of inorganic fertilizers.

PM51


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Improve diversity/quality of pasture sward by replacing monoculture planting with mixed grass seed using traditional native species and wildflower mixes. Encourage diversity across the entire contiguous parcel of habitat type, aiming for >45 species.

PM52




Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Work with farmers, farmer clusters, catchment sensitive farming and/or landowners to deliver on site nature improvements or introduce regenerative farming techniques.

PM53



Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Introduce and maintain target plant species that support LNRS short list species.


For more information on the species shortlist, click here.

PM54


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Increase native trees outside woodlands (e.g. agroforestry) to increase crop/ livestock resilience to climate change, diversify incomes, and increase connectivity. Must be sensitive to landscape character and be the right tree in the right place.

PM55




Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Restore natural processes through the introduction of large herbivores to create open scrub habitat.

PM111


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Reduce pesticide use.

PM56

Encourage farmers to take appropriate conservation measures on field margins (e.g. sow appropriate native wildflowers, create beetle banks, leave margins uncultivated, stop spraying herbicides, pesticides, and fertiliser near field margins, etc).


Reduce or avoid the use of inorganic fertilizers.


Improve diversity/quality of pasture sward by replacing monoculture planting with mixed grass seed using traditional native species and wildflower mixes. Encourage diversity across the entire contiguous parcel of habitat type, aiming for >45 species.


Work with farmers, farmer clusters, catchment sensitive farming and/or landowners to deliver on site nature improvements or introduce regenerative farming techniques.


Introduce and maintain target plant species that support LNRS short list species.


Increase native trees outside woodlands (e.g. agroforestry) to increase crop/ livestock resilience to climate change, diversify incomes, and increase connectivity. Must be sensitive to landscape character and be the right tree in the right place.



Wood areas

Remove non-native invasive species from woodlands (excluding introduced taxon of ancient origin with wildlife value).

Provide a broad mix of decomposing wood habitats, and encourage more deadwood.

Allow natural regeneration of native tree species in existing woodlands.

Manage woodland through coppicing to restore where historically practiced, benefit associated species, or increase structural diversity.

Open up rides and glades in existing woodland to develop ecotones and scrubby areas that develop a graduated edge to better support a wider range of wildlife.

Introduce grazing animals on a controlled basis in larger woodlands to create a more dynamic ecology and structural diversity.

Transform even-aged stands to a form of irregular or multi-structured continuous cover woodland.

No woodland that is used for the rearing of game birds can have enhancement measures recognised as being strategically significant. Remove existing game bird pens.

Undertake landscape-scale control measures to reduce deer grazing in woodlands, to reduce their negative impact on woodland ecology from overgrazing. Access support, e.g. via Forestry Commission grants for capital installations to support culling.

Transition management of productive woodlands to include mixed species crops where feasible.

Transition management of productive woodlands to continuous cover silviculture where feasible and will benefit a site’s wildlife.

When planting, use trees that are adapted for future climates and are resistant to disease.

Include fire and fuel breaks and/or fire belts in woodland to reduce the risk of wildfires, and ensure woodlands are resilient to climate change in the future.

Only fell trees affected by ash dieback when there is a material safety risk, a clear future safety risk, or as part of normal silvicultural operations.

Restore grazing to wood pasture and parkland.

Improve connectivity and improve condition for saproxylic species, for example creating more standing deadwood, retaining trees into veteran status. Fence areas from public access.

Increase the number of species indicative of long standing woodland to at or above the local wildlife site average for Berkshire, according to parcel size.

Create semi-natural habitat adjacent to ancient woodland.

Remove drainage in woodlands suitable for wet woodland creation or to restore historically wet woodland.

Establish a woodland edge transition zone from other habitats of a 30m minimum, or the height of the trees - whatever is greater.


Chalk areas

Restore abandoned quarries or disturbed land to calcareous grassland.

Implement wildlife-friendly management of dead land around racehorse gallops. Implement late mowing to protect ground-nesting birds and a diversity of plant species.

Ensure appropriate conservation grazing implemented at landscape scale.


Urban areas

Encourage local wildlife recording/citizen science schemes and participate in them.

Wildlife-friendly management of public open spaces and the trees in them, including road verges, particularly in mowing regimes.

Surface water conveyance provided at surface and flow attenuation designed for biodiversity benefits. Restore undergrounded (piped) surface water conveyance to above ground flow.

Deculvert areas.

Plant native tree species that have the potential to grow to a very large size (as defined by the statutory metric user guide) in locations where long-term retention until they reach that size is viable.

Plant new street trees, prioritising areas that will connect existing greenspaces.

Create integrated bat boxes, bird boxes, bird nest bricks and other species specific habitat measures. Min 2 per dwelling. Create ecological permeability in gardens, new developments, road verges and railways - for key species such as hedgehogs.

Plant new trees in existing greenspaces and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, prioritising areas with low UK ward canopy over and low tree equity scoring.


Wet areas

Restore degraded floodplain meadows through management (hay cutting with aftermath grazing, unwanted plant control, hydrological regime restoration). If appropriate, reintroduce native wildflowers through green hay, reseeding, or brush harvesting.

Clear willow scrub invasion where impacting habitats of significance, except where facilitating wet woodland creation.

Improve lake shorelines by regrading banks to provide muddy to gravel shores; planting new reedbeds in margins, planting/implementing management plans for surrounding vegetation and establishing/maintaining suitable habitats for lake shoreline fauna.

Restore gravel and mineral workings for new waterbodies for nature reserves to enhance the network of waterbodies in river valleys.

Monitor water quality with regular Riverfly testing for (10) most important sites.

Reconnect rivers to their original floodplains.

Maintain nightingale habitat within/around the water body complexes with local authorities accounting for the species when determining local planning decisions (e.g. of Lower Kennet Valley).

Restore XX of chalk streams.

Create leaky dams in streams to control flow.

Restore river banks of streams.

Aim for 30% shading of rivers. Clear bankside vegetation along chalk streams to let light in.

Work with water companies and other stakeholders to reduce water pollution through removal of surface water pipes, fixing broken sewage outlets, removing misconnections from houses etc.

Create fish passes, barrier removal and natural channels to connect fragmented river sections.

Future mineral sites to consider biodiversity in their after use.

Undertake riparian tree planting to cool down waters with observed temperature spikes. Highlight areas most appropriate for wetland restoration. Undertake compensatory planting where appropriate, ideally with a high native component.

Heath areas

Block drainage ditches to recreate wet heath and bog patches

If you would like more information regarding the various habitat types, their distributions across Berkshire, please follow the following link: https://rbwmtogether.rbwm.gov.uk/23667/widgets/85496/documents/70101

To note: no potential measures will be identified within international and national designated sites because landowners of these sites should already be receiving recommendations for management from Natural England.


Information on hedgerow data here - this is mapped linearly.

Priority Habitats within the Measures layer listed here:








Welcome to the Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Local Habitat Map landing page.

Please read the information below and watch the short video before accessing the map.

-Information about Marxan

-link back to public consultation

(Embed video here)


General, unmapped measures for Berkshire

Not all areas have been selected by our Opportunity Map, in fact ~36% of the county has been chosen, to ensure we direct nature recovery to the most important locations. Also, not all measures chosen for the Berks LNRS have been mapped. A list of the unmapped measures are below. If you manage or work in land that has not been selected for the Opportunity layer, and still want to undertake nature recovery activities, please see the list below.

Measures for everywhere/generic measures

Monitor habitat health using an appropriate toolkit (e.g. Biodiversity Net Gain, People’s Trust for Endangered Species etc) and address issues identified.

Encourage landowners to manage habitat for nature in accordance with best practice.

Establish refuge areas for wildlife (both as wintering and breeding areas) where access and recreational use is controlled.

Educate users of this habitat about its nature and how to use the habitat in a nature-friendly way. Promote greenspaces to be used as education facilities for local communities, e.g. through citizen science and community hubs.

Establish buffer zones greater than national guidance (e.g. >15m around ancient woodland sites). Prevent nature degradation occurring in buffer zones.

Manage invasive flora and fauna, for example controlling mink to restore water vole populations, following latest best practice.


General Agricultural areas and wider countryside

Priority

Measure

Code

Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Take appropriate conservation measures on field margins (e.g. sow appropriate native wildflowers, create beetle banks, leave margins uncultivated, stop spraying herbicides, pesticides, and fertiliser near field margins).

PM50

Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Reduce or avoid the use of inorganic fertilizers.

PM51


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Improve diversity/quality of pasture sward by replacing monoculture planting with mixed grass seed using traditional native species and wildflower mixes. Encourage diversity across the entire contiguous parcel of habitat type, aiming for >45 species.

PM52




Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Work with farmers, farmer clusters, catchment sensitive farming and/or landowners to deliver on site nature improvements or introduce regenerative farming techniques.

PM53



Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Introduce and maintain target plant species that support LNRS short list species.


For more information on the species shortlist, click here.

PM54


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Increase native trees outside woodlands (e.g. agroforestry) to increase crop/ livestock resilience to climate change, diversify incomes, and increase connectivity. Must be sensitive to landscape character and be the right tree in the right place.

PM55




Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Restore natural processes through the introduction of large herbivores to create open scrub habitat.

PM111


Improve the quality of habitats in agricultural land and the wider countryside

Reduce pesticide use.

PM56

Encourage farmers to take appropriate conservation measures on field margins (e.g. sow appropriate native wildflowers, create beetle banks, leave margins uncultivated, stop spraying herbicides, pesticides, and fertiliser near field margins, etc).


Reduce or avoid the use of inorganic fertilizers.


Improve diversity/quality of pasture sward by replacing monoculture planting with mixed grass seed using traditional native species and wildflower mixes. Encourage diversity across the entire contiguous parcel of habitat type, aiming for >45 species.


Work with farmers, farmer clusters, catchment sensitive farming and/or landowners to deliver on site nature improvements or introduce regenerative farming techniques.


Introduce and maintain target plant species that support LNRS short list species.


Increase native trees outside woodlands (e.g. agroforestry) to increase crop/ livestock resilience to climate change, diversify incomes, and increase connectivity. Must be sensitive to landscape character and be the right tree in the right place.



Wood areas

Remove non-native invasive species from woodlands (excluding introduced taxon of ancient origin with wildlife value).

Provide a broad mix of decomposing wood habitats, and encourage more deadwood.

Allow natural regeneration of native tree species in existing woodlands.

Manage woodland through coppicing to restore where historically practiced, benefit associated species, or increase structural diversity.

Open up rides and glades in existing woodland to develop ecotones and scrubby areas that develop a graduated edge to better support a wider range of wildlife.

Introduce grazing animals on a controlled basis in larger woodlands to create a more dynamic ecology and structural diversity.

Transform even-aged stands to a form of irregular or multi-structured continuous cover woodland.

No woodland that is used for the rearing of game birds can have enhancement measures recognised as being strategically significant. Remove existing game bird pens.

Undertake landscape-scale control measures to reduce deer grazing in woodlands, to reduce their negative impact on woodland ecology from overgrazing. Access support, e.g. via Forestry Commission grants for capital installations to support culling.

Transition management of productive woodlands to include mixed species crops where feasible.

Transition management of productive woodlands to continuous cover silviculture where feasible and will benefit a site’s wildlife.

When planting, use trees that are adapted for future climates and are resistant to disease.

Include fire and fuel breaks and/or fire belts in woodland to reduce the risk of wildfires, and ensure woodlands are resilient to climate change in the future.

Only fell trees affected by ash dieback when there is a material safety risk, a clear future safety risk, or as part of normal silvicultural operations.

Restore grazing to wood pasture and parkland.

Improve connectivity and improve condition for saproxylic species, for example creating more standing deadwood, retaining trees into veteran status. Fence areas from public access.

Increase the number of species indicative of long standing woodland to at or above the local wildlife site average for Berkshire, according to parcel size.

Create semi-natural habitat adjacent to ancient woodland.

Remove drainage in woodlands suitable for wet woodland creation or to restore historically wet woodland.

Establish a woodland edge transition zone from other habitats of a 30m minimum, or the height of the trees - whatever is greater.


Chalk areas

Restore abandoned quarries or disturbed land to calcareous grassland.

Implement wildlife-friendly management of dead land around racehorse gallops. Implement late mowing to protect ground-nesting birds and a diversity of plant species.

Ensure appropriate conservation grazing implemented at landscape scale.


Urban areas

Encourage local wildlife recording/citizen science schemes and participate in them.

Wildlife-friendly management of public open spaces and the trees in them, including road verges, particularly in mowing regimes.

Surface water conveyance provided at surface and flow attenuation designed for biodiversity benefits. Restore undergrounded (piped) surface water conveyance to above ground flow.

Deculvert areas.

Plant native tree species that have the potential to grow to a very large size (as defined by the statutory metric user guide) in locations where long-term retention until they reach that size is viable.

Plant new street trees, prioritising areas that will connect existing greenspaces.

Create integrated bat boxes, bird boxes, bird nest bricks and other species specific habitat measures. Min 2 per dwelling. Create ecological permeability in gardens, new developments, road verges and railways - for key species such as hedgehogs.

Plant new trees in existing greenspaces and Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems, prioritising areas with low UK ward canopy over and low tree equity scoring.


Wet areas

Restore degraded floodplain meadows through management (hay cutting with aftermath grazing, unwanted plant control, hydrological regime restoration). If appropriate, reintroduce native wildflowers through green hay, reseeding, or brush harvesting.

Clear willow scrub invasion where impacting habitats of significance, except where facilitating wet woodland creation.

Improve lake shorelines by regrading banks to provide muddy to gravel shores; planting new reedbeds in margins, planting/implementing management plans for surrounding vegetation and establishing/maintaining suitable habitats for lake shoreline fauna.

Restore gravel and mineral workings for new waterbodies for nature reserves to enhance the network of waterbodies in river valleys.

Monitor water quality with regular Riverfly testing for (10) most important sites.

Reconnect rivers to their original floodplains.

Maintain nightingale habitat within/around the water body complexes with local authorities accounting for the species when determining local planning decisions (e.g. of Lower Kennet Valley).

Restore XX of chalk streams.

Create leaky dams in streams to control flow.

Restore river banks of streams.

Aim for 30% shading of rivers. Clear bankside vegetation along chalk streams to let light in.

Work with water companies and other stakeholders to reduce water pollution through removal of surface water pipes, fixing broken sewage outlets, removing misconnections from houses etc.

Create fish passes, barrier removal and natural channels to connect fragmented river sections.

Future mineral sites to consider biodiversity in their after use.

Undertake riparian tree planting to cool down waters with observed temperature spikes. Highlight areas most appropriate for wetland restoration. Undertake compensatory planting where appropriate, ideally with a high native component.

Heath areas

Block drainage ditches to recreate wet heath and bog patches

If you would like more information regarding the various habitat types, their distributions across Berkshire, please follow the following link: https://rbwmtogether.rbwm.gov.uk/23667/widgets/85496/documents/70101

To note: no potential measures will be identified within international and national designated sites because landowners of these sites should already be receiving recommendations for management from Natural England.


Information on hedgerow data here - this is mapped linearly.

Priority Habitats within the Measures layer listed here:








Page last updated: 20 Dec 2024, 05:17 PM